Photo courtesy of Shannon Bahrke

Today was quite the day to start off the Olympics. We had a great morning of training in the pouring rain! Our course is in great shape; however, it was difficult to see while skiing it. It was snowing for the top quarter of our run and then turned to rain. I don’t think I’ve ever skied in half rain, half snow before. But I skied really well today so I am feeling good about going into tomorrow! I run DFL (Dead F***king Last) and wish I had a better start order, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Some days you have a good start order and some days you don’t. But since there are only 25 of us, it’s really not that bad!

We went straight from our training session down to the Olympic Village in preparation for Opening Ceremonies. When we got the village we had 45 minutes so we hit up the gym to do a cool down spin. After that we put on our clothes and then it was time for a whole bunch of “hurry up and wait.” All of Team USA was dressed in Ralph Lauren and I think we looked pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself!! We all took about a thousand pictures with each other and basically had the Olympic spirit in full swing!! From the time we went down for staging until the time we actually stepped out onto the Olympic stage for our march across the stage it took about four-and-a-half hours. A lot of waiting around but we filled the time with chatting, picture taking, putting on flag tattoos, sweating (because we were wearing a wool sweater and down jacket INSIDE), drinking water, and of course, taking more pictures. When we were in the hall waiting to go onto the stage we chanted U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A about a thousand times. We actually had a shout off with Canada and we definitely kicked their ass!!

When they finally called our country and we walked out onto the stage it was the most amazing feeling ever!! It was a huge stadium and everyone was on their feet cheering. Truly an honor to walk in for the USA! I had my camera out, snapping away, I think I got some pretty good ones. After we marched we walked to our seats, but my fellow women’s mogul teammates and I had to leave. So we walked out, took a bus home, and got home just in time to watch the Olympic torch being lit. I truly wish I could have stayed for the whole thing but it’s way too much time on my feet the night before a competition.

So here I am, just finishing up dinner and hoping tomorrow is one of my best competitions EVER!! Thanks for all of your well wishes, it truly means the world to me!! So now, Let The Games Begin!!

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